La Bolefuego

La Bolefuego or "The Firehead" is a folklore entity from Columbia and Venezuela. Also called La Candileja, this is a luminous female spirit that haunts the lush region of Los Llanos every night. Described as a glowing lantern that moves over the grass, trembling and dancing, without anyone being near it. Some have described this apparition as a burning corpse that responds angrily to those who look at her. It's believed that people must close their eyes when they see her, and to never pray either as this will only encourage her to turn violent. La Bolefuego prefers to scare lone travellers.

Legend has it that this entity goes back as far as the 18th century. It's believed this started as a tragic story. A young woman and her children were murdered in their home by a gang of criminals. After being viciously raped, the criminals robbed the house and set it on fire, leaving mother and children within. The woman's husband was away on business, so she was left all alone. The woman prayed but the smoke was too much and it killed her and the poor children. After that, it's said her furious spirit of the woman still haunts the area, appearing a bright fiery ghost, terrifying people and even killing them. 

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Nature CCTV films witches?

 

A nature enthusiastic woman named Corinea Stanhope, in British Columbia found a mutilated dead deer by her property. She set up a hidden camera to find out what sort of predator was responsible for killing the deer. It wasn't something she was looking forward to finding out because the area has known dangerous creatures, bear, big cats and wolves. Corinea has children and some horses so it was important to know. But what she later discovered after viewing the film, was much more disturbing and mysterious.

The camera picked up two people feeding on the decaying corpse of the dead deer. Shocked by what was on there, the woman and her family saw a couple on the film, at night and both half dressed, feasting on the dead deer. They looked like a young man and woman, who had long dark hair. They appeared to be eating the foul remains of the deer corpse. The discovery was uploaded on the internet, and many users commented their views. Some told Corinea to phone the police. 

It's been speculated the half naked people that were nibbling on dead deer were witches belonging to a cult. Others even said the pair were evil spirits, demons, skinwalkers and wendigo. Besides the strange couple, the hidden camera also picked up a number of other wild animals around the deer including a bob cat. Some say it was a prank, although that doesn't explain why there would be half naked and eating a rotten dead deer. There is a lot of holes to the story, such as media reporting that the video clip shows "two scantily clad women" when the images show just one woman and a man. Some wonder if the whole story was a fabrication or this was just being over the top weird couple having a grim wild romantic dinner! 

Source: The Wild Hunt article

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Strzyga

Strzyga by Fiona Scott

 The Strzyga is a creature from Slavic folklore. The term "strzyga" is a name for the female demon kind, and the male counterparts are called "strzygi". It's believed to be a vampire demoness, with horrible traits and a thirst for human blood.

 In Polish folklore, it's said that a person born with two hearts, two souls and two sets of teeth is a strzyga/strzygi. Also newborn babies with fully developed teeth were also considered by be strzyga. In the Medieval period, many people were buried alive during times of plague, and those who managed to crawl out from beneath the graves were thought to be undead or strzyga, then sent away from their home villages. The twin souls of the dead strzyga. were parted, so one passes into the afterlife and the other remains earthbound, taking form of an owl who attacked people at night and drank their blood and then devouring the rest later.

Scholars believe that the strzyga originates from the mythical Strix creature from Greek and Roman myths and legends. The Strix is a kind of demonic entity in the form of an owl that feeds on human blood and flesh. 

Source: Strix at Wikipedia page.     

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The strange Hexham Heads

Werewolf created by me using AI

 The strange case of the Hexham Heads, involves a werewolf story. This is a true event that occurred in a place called Hexham in Northumberland, England, during 1971. It began when a couple of boys, the Robson brothers, were digging in dirt and they found a pair of curious stones that were carved into the shape of human heads. The description of the stone heads was small, about 2 inches wide, each with different characteristics. One head was called "the boy" for it's hair was made as drawn with lines. The other head called "the girl" seemed to have bigger eyes and longer hair. Some have described the "boy" looking more like a child and the "girl" seemed more of an adult or an elderly woman. It is the female stone head that caused bother, as a report was made that this "girl" stone was demonic. 

Once the discovery of the heads was known more locally, the newspapers mentioned it and studies were made. Archaeologists examined the two heads and were not able to date them. It was believed the heads were Celtic in origin due to the style of the carvings. But it wasn't so much the significance of the stone heads that interested historians. Something else happened. 

While the stone heads were in the family home of the Robson's, the stone heads moved by themselves. Objects were thrown around, by unseen forces, especially glass bottles. Things turned violent this way by a poltergeist. The paranormal activities turned so severe that the next door neighbours also experienced the same things. The neighbours were terrified when a boy's hair was pulled by an ghost, and another occasion when they saw a goat-man entity exiting their house. The Robson family handed the stone heads over to the historian Dr Anne Ross. 

She had these stone heads with her, and also experienced troubling strange things. She was disturbed from sleep during the night and saw a wolf-man in her bedroom, leaving through the door, so she went after it. She followed the entity down into the kitchen, where it vanished. Another time, her daughter returned home from school to see a wolf-man on the stairs who bounded away before disappearing. More paranormal activities followed until she learned that the Robson's had a similar experience. When she took the stone heads from her house, the paranormal stopped.

Later a man named Desmond Craig emerged and claimed that he made those two heads for his daughter, when he used to live in the Robson family house years before. When told to replicate the stone heads, the ones he produced were not in anyway the same. They were much more of poor quality and his claims that he made the other two were dismissed. The University of Newcastle examined the two heads and found they were moulded artificially from solid rock, and not made with sand and clay as the Mr Craig had done. The heads were passed around among historians until they ended up at University of Southampton, who then handed them to a psychic in 1978, where they completely disappeared. The whereabouts of the Hexham stone heads is unknown. 

The town of Hexham has experienced a werewolf in the past, long before the Hexham Heads incident. In 1904 there were attacks by a wolf creature in Hexham, which some believed was paranormal and not a regular wild wolf. This was reported in The Hexham Courant newspaper "The Wolf of Allendale" which saw a brutal loss of livestock animals with bite wounds on the necks, some were gutted and half eaten. A large wolf was seen near Allenheads School that drew panic, so a hunting party was organised to look for it. They only found traces of the wolf near a drain but it had gone. Sheep were slaughtered one night, and hunters were still unable to locate the wolf. 

Sources: 

book Lo! by Charles Fort

Historic Mysteries article "The Phantom Wolf and the Hexham Heads" . 

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Hungry grass

 Hungry grass or fairy grass is an Irish folklore. It's creepy and frightening legend about an area of grass, different to other patches of grass, rooted in cursed soil and was planted by malevolent spirits. Anyone walking over the cursed grass were doomed to suffer with both weakness and hunger. Some other believe this grass is caused by an unshriven corpse buried there. To avoid this, someone who must cross over the hungry grass can protect themselves by bringing along food to eat. 

The Irish Potato Famine happened in the years between 1845 and 1852 gave more emphasis on the legend of the hungry grass, and manifested a cruel supernatural entity called the Hungry Man, who people feared the most. It was said that hungry grass and the Hungry Man ate people, including fishermen and farmers. 

Hungry grass originally came from a site called Knockday, or "Hungry Hill". It's a magical and beautiful place with ancient megaliths and a beautiful big waterfall. People have mysteriously vanished on this hill, but there is a story of a man who went there, found the grass moving like snakes and wrapping around him, but the grass blades fell away from him when he took a bite of an apple. Later he went to a village and was told the hill was dangerous as it consumed people. Feeling annoyed that the man survived the hungry hill, bad fairies planted hungry grass everywhere. A wall was built around the Hungry Hill and famine stopped. It's believed that if the wall falls, famine will return. 

The myth of hungry grass appeared in 1811 in Ozarks region of Missouri, USA, by Irish settlers in the area when an earthquake happened. It was believed that was caused by a "Gortach", a supernatural creature that liked to damage crops and kill people. A century later, farmers who smoked hemp were immune to the monster who wrecked havoc each night. Festivals were held that put off the monster, although the culture was ceased with a change in law in the 1930's. In recent times the festivals returned after more relaxed laws for hemp and cannabis.  

Source: Books by William Carleton.

      

Wildlife picture of the month

 

This is the 10th post in Wildlife Picture of the Month topic so far. I plan to do 12 and I have been writing about them at the start of each month. Among all of the wild animals in Britain and Europe I've been randomly choosing an animal and its traits on that month. 

Among the amphibians is the common frog, mostly found in wetlands. They can appear in gardens with fresh ponds too. Common frogs are found throughout the British Isles and are patterned with spots and stripes. They have long legs ideal for hopping. There are many kinds of other amphibians including different varieties of frogs, toad, newts and salamanders that belong to the Lissamphibia group of animals, a smooth amphibian who are a class of modern tetrapods, or "four footed" creatures. There are many kinds of amphibians in the world. 

Frogs appear in so many myths and folklore. In one particular story by Aesop, "The Frogs Who Desired a King" was about a load of frogs asking the god Zeus for a king of their own. Zeus gave them a king which was a log, and it splashed into the water. This annoyed the frogs and they crawled over the long and realised it wasn't moving or communicating to them. They asked Zeus for another king, a real one who was strong and alive. Zeus sent them a large stork, who began eating the frogs. The rest of the frogs asked Zeus for a better king, but the god refused, saying they already asked for a king twice. The story tells us that it's best to be grateful for what's been given instead of demanding more. 

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